Is it Possible to Render 4K Videos & Export in 4k Format on an Android Smartphone

Earlier when we were testing the OnePlus 3 Smartphone, we had a question regarding the RAM on the Smartphone. The phone comes with 6GB of RAM that a normal user would not use, while the use-case should be someone who wants to play heavy resource intensive games & someone who should be editing his videos on the go. If you are a Vlogger or a Creator who records a lot of videos from your Smartphone, then you should be getting a phone with 6GB RAM & a powerful processor like the Snapdragon 820 or probably the Snapdragon 830 that’s expected to launch soon.

The question still stays the same. Will you be able to render 4K Videos from your Android Phone & then export the same on your device in 4K? We have tried & tested dozens of video editing applications available in the Google Play Store, but surprisingly very few applications actually allow you to Import 4K videos and edit them. During this search, I was surprised that there was no app that actually allows you to export your videos in the 4K resolution. Most of them exported the videos in 1080P or lower & that again depends on the Smartphone you have been using for these tests.

One of those applications that we tested was the KineMaster Pro Video Editor that has been downloaded more than 5 Million times. What I liked about the app was the huge number of features & also hoped that it would be supporting the requirement that I was looking forward to. Sadly it didn’t, though there’s the following information available on their official listing that clears that most of the mid-range or the budget phones are not compatible.

There is a user community of KineMaster where I had asked the team a few questions & following are their answers.

Q. Is there a way to import 4K videos and also export in 4k?
A. Matthew A. Feinberg: Hi +Amit Bhawani, thanks for your question! Currently, it is possible to import 4K videos (with re-encoding) on the Snapdragon 820 chipset only. Currently, there is no chipset on the market that is powerful enough to support exporting in 4K, but we expect there may be some new phones in late 2017 that might be capable of it. (There is no technical limitation in KineMaster about it… internally, we already support 4K, but there aren’t any phones or tablets that are capable of it yet). As a general rule, you need 3x~4x performance for video editing. So for example, to edit 1080p 30fps video, you need a phone that can play and record 1080p 90fps or 1080p 120fps video. The same goes for 4K—and at the moment, there are no phones that can handle 4K 120fps video (Snapdragon 820 is close, but still not quite powerful enough). I know that’s not the answer you want, but it’s the best we can do for now. Hope you understand, and thanks for using KineMaster!

Q. Were you able to Export 4K Videos on any phone? Any other inputs you could add
KineMaster itself has 4K capability, but right now it’s not possible to use that capability on any device because there aren’t any devices that are powerful enough. In other words, we did all of the work for 4K support already, but now we have to wait for a powerful enough device to become available on the market. (As for 4K import, Snapdragon 820 handles it well).

There is also the Cyberlink PowerDirector Video Editor App available on the Play Store that also exports videos only in full HD resolution instead of the desired 4K & this is a pity. We have Smartphones with crazy hardware launching every month but no progress on the actual use case of that hardware for which we pay hundreds of dollars. Do let us know if you find out an Android App that fulfils this requirement and is available for everyone.